1. Translation Parties are intended to help you make the best subtitle choice for a given anime. Choose which line(s) you liked best by selecting them with the checkbox.

2. I split the Party into two parts — Essential and Extended. Assuming you want to get this shit over with quickly, just go with the Essential choices. I picked these to be the most representative lines in the releases. But if you’re one of those people who want more comparisons to help you come to a decision, go with the Essential choices and the Extended ones.

3. If you didn’t like any of the lines, choose the “N/A” option. The results for “N/A” won’t be automatically tabulated, so you’ll have to do the math in your head. Have my gomens and nasais.

4. A “>” indicates that another character has begun speaking. If there are three characters in a line comparison, I will indicate the third with a “>>” and so on for more characters.

5. Group order is randomized for each screenshot, every time you refresh the page. However, the “N/A” option will always appear at the bottom of the screen.

6. Your results will be summed up when you click the “Get your results” button. Feel free to vote in the poll at the end/post in the comments to let others know how you did and to compare your results with them.

7. Party hard.

Kill la Kill – Episode 01

Comparisons: 10 or 20

Participants:

Commie

HorribleSubs

Underwater

Codes:

{\i1} indicates the start of italics

{\i0} indicates the close of italics

You’ll notice there’s not much of a difference between the scripts. Welcome to modern fansubbing.

Essential 1.

Commie :: Students of Second Year Class A!
We have determined that there is
someone among you who intends to harm Honnouji Academy!
Any excuses will fall on deaf ears! This person will be punished immediately!

HorribleSubs :: Students of Second Year Class K!
We have determined that there
is someone who intends harm against Honnouji Academy among you!
Explanations will fall on deaf ears! This person will be punished immediately!

Underwater :: Students of Class 2-A!
It has come to light that one of you dares bare his fangs against Honnouji Academy.
There is no room for excuses!
He will be punished immediately!

Essential 3.

Commie :: You’re pretty talented, stealing a lemon someone else had just started eating.
Are you that desperate for an indirect kiss?
>Bitch, don’t try to be all witty! I’ve had my first kiss already!
Then I guess you don’t have any regrets.

HorribleSubs :: You’re a precocious kid, stealing a lemon someone
else had just started eating.
You’re that eager to learn what first love tastes like?
>Bitch, don’t try to be all witty! I’ve had my first kiss!
Then there truly is no such thing as regret in this world anymore.

Underwater :: Aren’t you a bit young to be stealin’ fruit that’s been in a pretty girl’s mouth, kid?
Are you that eager to learn what first love tastes like?
>Don’t get smart with me, bitch!
>I’ve already had my first kiss!
Then I guess you can die without any regrets.

N/A :: N/A. They all suck.

Essential 4.

Commie :: You’ve insulted the great Lightning Speed Mataro.
Honnou Town Blind Alley is my turf. This is my neighborhood!
It’s a feared hangout for drifters and a dead end for the living.
If you want to go home in one piece, drop your wallet and leave.
>Come on, what’s with the anachronistic street punk routine?

HorribleSubs :: You’ve insulted the great Lightning Speed Mataro.
This neighborhood is my turf! Honnou Town Blind Alley.
It’s a dead end for lives and a feared hangout for drifters.
If you want to get home in one piece, leave your wallet and go.
>Come on, what’s with the anachronistic street punk routine?

Underwater :: How dare you insult the great Lightning Quick Matarou.
This neighborhood is my turf: Honnou Town Blind Alley!
It’s a dead end for lives and a feared hangout for drifters.
If you wanna get outta here in one piece, leave your wallet and skedaddle.
>Come on, that street punk routine of yours is so last decade.

N/A :: N/A. They all suck.

Essential 5.

I must reiterate: You should really watch this show. For reals. It’s fucking ace-tier.

Essential 7.

Commie :: Your glove is made of iron?
>Don’t you even know your uniforms?
You’re not even wearing a uniform!
>The only uniform a boxer needs are gloves and trunks!
>As well as the athleticism-augmenting
>Two-Star Goku Uniform given to me by Lady Satsuki!

HorribleSubs :: That glove is made of iron?
>Don’t you even know your uniforms?
You’re not even wearing a uniform!
>To boxers, these gloves and trunks are our uniform!
>As well as the athleticism-augmenting
>Two-Star Goku Uniform given to me by Lady Satsuki!

Underwater :: Are those iron gloves?
>Hah! Never heard of an Ultima Uniform before?
Say what? I don’t see you wearing a uniform!
>A boxer’s uniform is his gloves, trunks, and so on!
>This is what Lady Satsuki gave me!
>An Athleticism-Augmenting Two-Star Ultima Uniform!

Essential 9.

Commie :: Even a boxing amateur like me can see that something like that is illegal.
But still… You’re on.
>I dunno what you were hiding in the cloak,
>but now that you’re half-naked,
>I’m gonna rip what little fabric remains to shreds and send you flying!

HorribleSubs :: Even someone like me who doesn’t know the rules
can see that that’s illegal.
But still… you’re on.
>I don’t know what you had hidden in
>that cloak you were wearing,
>but now that you’re half-naked,
>I’m gonna rip what little fabric remains to shreds and send you flying!

Underwater :: Even I can tell that’s illegal, and I don’t even know the rules!
But I like it!
>I don’t know what you had hidden in that cloak you were wearing,
>but now that you’re half-naked,
>I’m gonna tear up what little clothing you have left and send you flying!

Expanded 5.

Commie :: This is half of a giant pair of scissors.
I’m looking for the owner of the other half.
I noticed that you were shocked to see this just now, Ma’am.
You’ve seen it before, haven’t you?
You’ve seen my Scissor Blade!

HorribleSubs :: This is half of a giant pair of scissors.
I’m looking for the owner of the other half.
Prez, I noticed that you were shocked to see this just now.
You’ve seen it before, haven’t you?
You’ve seen my Scissor Blade!

Underwater :: This is one half of a giant pair of scissors.
I’m lookin’ for the bearer of the other half.
Prez…
You were surprised to see this just now, weren’t you?
Do you recognize it?
This Sword Scissor!

N/A :: N/A. They all suck.

Expanded 6.

Glasses-kun explaining why they didn’t have any warning that Ryuko was going around to schools under their control and fighting a bunch of people.

Expanded 8.

Commie :: Transfer student, can you hear me?
One hour from now, your best friend will be executed!
For your crime of treason against Honnouji Academy, she is guilty by association!
If you want to stop it, quit hiding and show yourself!

HorribleSubs :: Transfer student, can you hear me?
One hour from now, your best friend’s execution will be carried out!
As shared responsibility for
your crime of treason against Honnouji Academy!
If you want to stop it, quit skulking and show yourself!

Underwater :: Transfer student, can you hear me?
One hour from now, your friend here will be executed!
As shared responsibility for your crime of treason against Honnouji Academy!
If you want to prevent it, quit skulking around and show yourself!

Commie :: Students of Second Year Class A!
We have determined that there is
someone among you who intends to harm Honnouji Academy!
Any excuses will fall on deaf ears! This person will be punished immediately!

HorribleSubs :: Students of Second Year Class K!
We have determined that there
is someone who intends harm against Honnouji Academy among you!
Explanations will fall on deaf ears! This person will be punished immediately!

Underwater :: Students of Class 2-A!
It has come to light that one of you dares bare his fangs against Honnouji Academy.
There is no room for excuses!
He will be punished immediately!

Commie :: You’re pretty talented, stealing a lemon someone else had just started eating.
Are you that desperate for an indirect kiss?
>Bitch, don’t try to be all witty! I’ve had my first kiss already!
Then I guess you don’t have any regrets.

HorribleSubs :: You’re a precocious kid, stealing a lemon someone
else had just started eating.
You’re that eager to learn what first love tastes like?
>Bitch, don’t try to be all witty! I’ve had my first kiss!
Then there truly is no such thing as regret in this world anymore.

Underwater :: Aren’t you a bit young to be stealin’ fruit that’s been in a pretty girl’s mouth, kid?
Are you that eager to learn what first love tastes like?
>Don’t get smart with me, bitch!
>I’ve already had my first kiss!
Then I guess you can die without any regrets.

Commie :: You’ve insulted the great Lightning Speed Mataro.
Honnou Town Blind Alley is my turf. This is my neighborhood!
It’s a feared hangout for drifters and a dead end for the living.
If you want to go home in one piece, drop your wallet and leave.
>Come on, what’s with the anachronistic street punk routine?

HorribleSubs :: You’ve insulted the great Lightning Speed Mataro.
This neighborhood is my turf! Honnou Town Blind Alley.
It’s a dead end for lives and a feared hangout for drifters.
If you want to get home in one piece, leave your wallet and go.
>Come on, what’s with the anachronistic street punk routine?

Underwater :: How dare you insult the great Lightning Quick Matarou.
This neighborhood is my turf: Honnou Town Blind Alley!
It’s a dead end for lives and a feared hangout for drifters.
If you wanna get outta here in one piece, leave your wallet and skedaddle.
>Come on, that street punk routine of yours is so last decade.

Commie :: Your glove is made of iron?
>Don’t you even know your uniforms?
You’re not even wearing a uniform!
>The only uniform a boxer needs are gloves and trunks!
>As well as the athleticism-augmenting
>Two-Star Goku Uniform given to me by Lady Satsuki!

HorribleSubs :: That glove is made of iron?
>Don’t you even know your uniforms?
You’re not even wearing a uniform!
>To boxers, these gloves and trunks are our uniform!
>As well as the athleticism-augmenting
>Two-Star Goku Uniform given to me by Lady Satsuki!

Underwater :: Are those iron gloves?
>Hah! Never heard of an Ultima Uniform before?
Say what? I don’t see you wearing a uniform!
>A boxer’s uniform is his gloves, trunks, and so on!
>This is what Lady Satsuki gave me!
>An Athleticism-Augmenting Two-Star Ultima Uniform!

Commie :: Even a boxing amateur like me can see that something like that is illegal.
But still… You’re on.
>I dunno what you were hiding in the cloak,
>but now that you’re half-naked,
>I’m gonna rip what little fabric remains to shreds and send you flying!

HorribleSubs :: Even someone like me who doesn’t know the rules
can see that that’s illegal.
But still… you’re on.
>I don’t know what you had hidden in
>that cloak you were wearing,
>but now that you’re half-naked,
>I’m gonna rip what little fabric remains to shreds and send you flying!

Underwater :: Even I can tell that’s illegal, and I don’t even know the rules!
But I like it!
>I don’t know what you had hidden in that cloak you were wearing,
>but now that you’re half-naked,
>I’m gonna tear up what little clothing you have left and send you flying!

Commie :: The next assassin the Student Council sends out
is Tennis Club Captain, Hakodate Omiko.
Even with my powers, it will be difficult to save Ryuko from her predicament.

HorribleSubs :: The next assassin the Student Council sends out
is Tennis Club Captain, Omiko Hakodate.
Even with my powers it will be difficult to save
Ryuko from the pinch she’s in.

Underwater :: The next assassin the Honnouji Academy Student Council sends out
is the Tennis Club Captain, Hakodate Omiko.
A crisis befalls Ryuuko, who is unable to draw out my powers well enough.

N/A :: N/A. They all suck.

Decision Point:

Holy fucking shit, Dark_Sage. Give me more comparisons. I fucking live for this! (Put the knife down and click the spoiler. We got ten more comparisons for ya.)
Oh my god, put a bullet in my head. When is this shit gonna be over with already? (You’ve seen enough for one lifetime. Head down to the results.)

Commie :: This is half of a giant pair of scissors.
I’m looking for the owner of the other half.
I noticed that you were shocked to see this just now, Ma’am.
You’ve seen it before, haven’t you?
You’ve seen my Scissor Blade!

HorribleSubs :: This is half of a giant pair of scissors.
I’m looking for the owner of the other half.
Prez, I noticed that you were shocked to see this just now.
You’ve seen it before, haven’t you?
You’ve seen my Scissor Blade!

Underwater :: This is one half of a giant pair of scissors.
I’m lookin’ for the bearer of the other half.
Prez…
You were surprised to see this just now, weren’t you?
Do you recognize it?
This Sword Scissor!

N/A :: N/A. They all suck.

Expanded 6.

Glasses-kun explaining why they didn’t have any warning that Ryuko was going around to schools under their control and fighting a bunch of people.

Commie :: Transfer student, can you hear me?
One hour from now, your best friend will be executed!
For your crime of treason against Honnouji Academy, she is guilty by association!
If you want to stop it, quit hiding and show yourself!

HorribleSubs :: Transfer student, can you hear me?
One hour from now, your best friend’s execution will be carried out!
As shared responsibility for
your crime of treason against Honnouji Academy!
If you want to stop it, quit skulking and show yourself!

Underwater :: Transfer student, can you hear me?
One hour from now, your friend here will be executed!
As shared responsibility for your crime of treason against Honnouji Academy!
If you want to prevent it, quit skulking around and show yourself!

Overall scores…
Commie: 9 times
HorribleSubs: 3 times
Underwater: 5 times
Looks like your best bet is Commie

I ended up with Commie. But due to nostalgia’s sake I’ll always be watching this first with Crunchyroll or a Himado stream regardless of TL party or review status. Gotta get my KlK fix as soon as possible. Subsequent viewings are a different story though.

To follow-up, since I got this question on IRC, I just wanna let y’all know that I don’t consider my TL Party scores a substitute for my reviews (as you can tell, I generally avoid analysis in these parties).

These kinds of posts are where you get a feeling for the flow of the groups and see what kind of flavor you most enjoy. So don’t look at my scores as an indication of where yours should be at. Just clarifying things.

A lot of these lines were pretty much the same. The one that stood out was “feminine wiles,” being perfect in #8, so I’ll probably end up with Underwater for archiving, and just whichever is first for watching.

If I believed in rating groups off their names and not the individual staff attached to each project, Crymore would just be a Top 10 list and I’d call it good enough.

To answer your musings, let me just copy out my dossier on Underwater:

~Underwater~
Public’s thoughts: Underwater’s generally considered average to above average. Their reputation is greater among communities where their leader likes to visit, so they’ll track positive perception among 4chan and Nyaa members, but due to the group’s underwhelming lack of presence, they aren’t “top thought” when it comes to fansub groups.
Key staff: Underwater’s star attraction is their leader, Daiz, who’s known for his encoding skills. Other staff are prominent in other groups, but relatively unessential to Underwater’s continued success.
Known affiliations: The Cartel
Known enemies: Doki
Average group member’s age: Too old to still be virgins. Please at least hire prostitutes, you’re making me embarrassed for you.

Well, as cool as you make it sound like an RPG info/stats thing (if they’re called Underwater, are they weak to grass-type magicks?), I’m already downloading it to rewatch the episode for the 5th time (the little details in animation and BGs are amazing).

And yeah, Nyaa really loves Daiz, most of the comments worshipped him~

I feel like jumping on the Daiz bandwagon too! I watched all 3 releases and this was definitely the best. DAT. TYPESETTING!!! The way the “NEXT DAY” was covered by the university’s walls, the way they chose to replace the whole motorcycle apologize note with perspective’d text. It all feels a lot less cluttered now. I’m not a big fan of some names, but that is fag-level nitpicking.

Go further on why(for example) underwater is an above average group, what people are causing this status(fansubbing celebrity’s like Daiz, Raze,…), Commie is over-localizing and Doki is making me feel bad for being an otaku, that group is known for xxx, that kind of stuff.

It would be nice to have all these “dossier” out there, easily acessible, so I could like, search in that dossier how you rank Vivid, for exemple, and not have to wait until you actually review their sub of an anime.

I’m also interested on info on which group actually translate stuff, and which one only rip crunchy.

Are you really too lazy to google it yourself? “Ultima” is a linguistic term meaning the final syllable of a word. Ultra-, ultimate, super, mega-, extreme, absolute, magnificent, grand, glorious, whatever! There’s plenty of good English words you can use, making words up without understanding their actual usage in the English language is juvenile. It makes me think the subbers learned to read from playing Final Fantasy.

Reading it here, I also thought it was silly, but watching it in the actual release changed my mind. At least they’re translating it to something understandable in this language, and it fits with the kiddy-cartoon look anyway.

Underwater:
Dialogue: 9,0:24:12.88,0:24:15.89,Default,,0,0,0,,The next assassin the Honnouji Academy Student Council sends out
Dialogue: 9,0:24:15.89,0:24:17.81,Default,,0,0,0,,is the Tennis Club Captain, Hakodate Omiko.
Dialogue: 9,0:24:17.81,0:24:21.98,Default,,0,0,0,,A crisis befalls Ryuuko, who is unable to draw out my powers well enough.

Commie:
Dialogue: 7,0:24:12.47,0:24:15.47,Default,NTP,0,0,0,,{\i1}The next assassin the Student Council sends out
Dialogue: 7,0:24:15.47,0:24:17.85,Default,,0,0,0,,{\i1}is Tennis Club Captain, Hakodate Omiko.
Dialogue: 7,0:24:17.85,0:24:21.60,Default,NTP,0,0,0,italics fail,{\i1}Even with my powers, it will be difficult to save Ryuko from her predicament.

Overall scores…
Commie: 1 time
HorribleSubs: 0 times
Underwater: 9 times
Looks like your best bet is Underwater

One of the most lopsided TL Parties I’ve ever had. I think Underwater did a solid job this time, with inventive dialog that did a better job of fitting actual students and what I heard being said. I agree with above that “Ultima Uniform” was a creative way of translating 極制服 (“Goku Seifuku”, “extreme/highest rank school uniform”) given the name and the clear effects. It’s both catchy and gets the point across (drawing on decades of JRPGs and other games as a cultural reference point works here IMO). I think a show like this can use a more liberal script if pulled off well.

At any rate though great start, agree with FUCKING WATCH IT YOU DEGENERATES. Looking like this will be a hell of a fun ride. Feels like it ramped up a lot faster then GL for example, so will look forward to seeing where they go from here.